Guillaume Lerouge's blog http://guillaumelerouge.com www.guillaumelerouge.com posterous.com Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:06:05 -0800 One Feature Phone To Rule Them All http://guillaumelerouge.com/one-feature-phone-to-rule-them-all http://guillaumelerouge.com/one-feature-phone-to-rule-them-all
Photo_1 Photo_2 Photo_3
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:47:00 -0800 Siri isn't how Jobs cracked the TV nut http://guillaumelerouge.com/siri-isnt-how-jobs-cracked-tv http://guillaumelerouge.com/siri-isnt-how-jobs-cracked-tv

Evidence suggests that Jobs had other ideas in minds when he referred to TV saying he had "finally cracked it".

It seems to me that the following passage in Steve Jobs' biography should cast serious doubts as to whether Siri is the idea Jobs had in mind:

At one point Forstall showed off a voice recognition app. As he feared, Jobs grabbed the phone in the middle of the demo and proceeded to see if he could confuse it. “What’s the weather in Palo Alto?” he asked. The app answered. After a few more questions, Jobs challenged it: “Are you a man or a woman?” Amazingly, the app answered in its robotic voice, “They did not assign me a gender.” For a moment the mood lightened.


This is taking place on August 24, 2011. Contrast this with this other passage, that I assume took place some time earlier in 2011:

And he very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant. “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” he told me. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.” No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”

 

Simply put, this is completely inconsistent with the idea that Siri would be the aforementioned interface:

  • From this story in Pen Computing Magazine, we learn that ""Jobs doesn't believe in handwriting recognition," observed Steve Capps, Newton's principal designer." This and his reaction to the voice recognition interface seem to indicate that automated recognition of interaction was not Jobs' favored mode of interaction.
  • Earlier in the book, we're introduced to Jobs' focus on shipping real, usable products. Jobs also discussed the TV business at length back in 2010 at the D8 conference, noting the various issues with shipping a TV. He thought about the issue a lot.
  • Given that Jobs doesn't seem to have known much about Siri before his resignation, it seems weird to think that he would consider having "cracked" TV by simply having thought about using voice recognition technology to build a new interface for TVs.

This casts serious doubts on Siri being the answer to Jobs' TV interface woes. I'm leaning much more in favor of John Gruber's theory that the future of TV is apps:

  • An Apple-built TV would run some version of iOS
  • iOS already features many easy-to-use TV apps. Airplay gives a good idea of how an iDevice could be used to easily control a TV
  • The main issue with Airplay is bandwidth and processor performance: sending high-definition video over the air through WiFi and rendering it perfectly on a 1080 display without any latency nor resolution problem
  • However, it would be very easy for the AppleTV to directly access a video stream selected from your device through its own ethernet connexion, using credentials stored on the device
  • This way, users benefit from yearly upgrades in their device while being able to use the TV as a great, longer-lasting content consumption tool

PS: as an aside, this fits with Fred Wilson's theory that cheap will be smart.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:41:00 -0800 London - Winter 2011 http://guillaumelerouge.com/london-winter-2011 http://guillaumelerouge.com/london-winter-2011

I was in London last week for the Online Information 2011 conference. I took the opportunity to stay there for the week-end. The progress made on the The Shard since my last time there were pretty amazing! I also discovered St Katharine Docks, definitely a great location. I highly recommend going to the Starbucks overlooking the basin!

Photo_04-12-11_13_42_31 Photo_02-12-11_12_31_56 Photo_04-12-11_15_45_33 Photo_03-12-11_21_45_25 Photo_04-12-11_13_43_36 Photo_04-12-11_13_49_23 Photo_03-12-11_10_11_24 Photo_03-12-11_15_06_12 Photo_04-12-11_16_17_34
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:02:16 -0800 Software - On making the possible easy http://guillaumelerouge.com/software-on-making-the-possible-easy http://guillaumelerouge.com/software-on-making-the-possible-easy Right now at XWiki we're hard at work on building a new feature that we think will change the way people will interact with our software. It's a wizard called "Application Within Minutes" which aim is to let users take advantage of XWiki's structured documents functionality much more easily than it is possible now. It will look like this:

step27.png
This feature has been available almost since the beginning of XWiki, more than 7 years ago. However, until today it hasn't been easy to use. It was merely possible, using a complex number of steps in order to build a simple application.

This recent article by Jason Fried nails it:

Much of the tension in product development and interface design comes from trying to balance the obvious, the easy, and the possible. Figuring out which things go in which bucket is critical to fully understanding how to make something useful.

Shouldn’t everything be obvious? Unless you’re making a product that just does one thing – like a paperclip, for example – everything won’t be obvious. You have to make tough calls about what needs to be obvious, what should be easy, and what should be possible. The more things something (a product, a feature, a screen, etc) does, the more calls you have to make.


We're going to try to make the possible, easy. Obvious is next on the list.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Fri, 25 Nov 2011 06:01:26 -0800 Address is Approximate - Amazing video http://guillaumelerouge.com/address-is-approximate-amazing-video http://guillaumelerouge.com/address-is-approximate-amazing-video Very cool - thanks @jvelo !

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:24:53 -0800 Why making technology easy matters http://guillaumelerouge.com/why-making-technology-easy-matters http://guillaumelerouge.com/why-making-technology-easy-matters I'm at my mum's this week-end. She missed one of her favorite shows yesterday evening and she wants to watch it today. She tried accessing the TV channel website in order to watch it from her netbook, to no avail. Not a good experience.

So I got my ipad out, downloaded the TV channel's app and immediately found a replay of the show she missed. She's now sitting in the living room, enjoying her series.

Not only might the future of TV indeed be apps, but experiences like this show -again- why making technology truly easy to use matters so much. That's how you change people's lives for the better.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:47:11 -0800 Article: Why Startups Should Pay Attention to Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 http://guillaumelerouge.com/article-why-startups-should-pay-attention-to http://guillaumelerouge.com/article-why-startups-should-pay-attention-to

Hi was reading this article by Mark Suster:

But here’s the magic. With Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul all in the race nobody should even be talking about Herman Cain. You have the fringe candidate in Ron Paul. You have the red meat social candidate in Michelle Bachman. You have the groomed and polished candidates like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. You have the “anybody but Mitt” candidate Rick Perry. You even have the old guard Newt Gingrich.

But we’re all talking about Herman Cain.

He makes the point that software companies have a hard time articulating their value proposition to potential customers in a clear and understandable way. That's an issue I'm faced with daily as a software sales guy: how do you convey both the breadth and depth of your offering while at the same time keeping your prospects interested and engaged in the conversation? You have to walk a fine line between oversimplifying and showing the value for your potential customer's specific use case.

The key takeover from Mark's article, though, is that if you want to get to stage 2 ("here's why my product is great for you") you have to start by a simple message that you'll repeat over and over again. It might sound boring or inefficient to you, but you have to keep in mind that your prospects are coming from an different perspective entirely. They do not have your experience nor your domain knowledge - that's why they're coming to see you in the first place!

I have a tendency to forget this again and again and the post was a nice reminder to keep it simple.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:33:00 -0800 Article: THE TWEAKER - The real genius of Steve Jobs. http://guillaumelerouge.com/article-the-tweaker-the-real-genius-of-steve http://guillaumelerouge.com/article-the-tweaker-the-real-genius-of-steve

Great article. The geist of it: "It's not over until it's been done right."

(THE TWEAKER - The real genius of Steve Jobs. (Malcolm Gladwell/New Yorker))
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

This guy badgered me about how Microsoft was going to completely change the world with this tablet PC software and eliminate all notebook computers, and Apple ought to license his Microsoft software. But he was doing the device all wrong. It had a stylus. As soon as you have a stylus, you’re dead. This dinner was like the tenth time he talked to me about it, and I was so sick of it that I came home and said, “Fuck this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be.”

(via Instapaper)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:36:33 -0700 My New (Experimental) Setup http://guillaumelerouge.com/my-new-experimental-setup http://guillaumelerouge.com/my-new-experimental-setup After reading an article recently on a developer using his iPad as his only machine for a full week, I felt tempted to revive my old Apple Bluetooth Keyboard.

After a trip to the local convenience store to pick-up new batteries and some fiddling with pairing and keyboard locale, I'm all set!

First impressions:
* Being able to type on a keyboard is a real plus for longer-form posts such as this one
* The screen interaction feels a bit weird - having to touch the screen to perform actions such as sending a message is an unnecessary distraction, but I couldn't find a keyboard shortcut yet
* I'm missing tabbed navigation between apps - cmd-tab refuses to do anything :-)

Although this is a nice add-on to the iPad experience, it also makes me understand why Apple is unlikely to release a touch-enabled iMac until it figures out how best to combine the keyboard/mouse and touch-based modes of interaction with the machine.

Now off to selecting a great iPad editor!

Photo

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:06:45 -0700 A Sales Guy: Good Speaks for Itself http://guillaumelerouge.com/a-sales-guy-good-speaks-for-itself http://guillaumelerouge.com/a-sales-guy-good-speaks-for-itself Well, go read it by yourself:

We spend a lot of time these days telling everyone how good our products are, or how good our service is. I can’t help but wonder if we’d be better off is we spent that time and money on just being really good; — good speaks for itself.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:18:00 -0700 Don't be afraid http://guillaumelerouge.com/dont-be-afraid http://guillaumelerouge.com/dont-be-afraid I was reading this post from Conrey is for closers :

I was asked a great question by a salesperson I was consulting with recently:

Chris, how do you deliver an estimate when you know that it is going to be significantly higher than what they expect or can afford?

I used to (and, in some ways, still do) face this issue. You're being asked something by a potential client and you know that the answer you're going to give them will be above the budget they are claiming. Another way to look at this is through expectations. When you feel that your quote price's is too high, it's usually because there's a misalignment between your potential client's expectation and their budget:
  1. Either the budget is fixed and their expectations are too high
  2. Or the budget is not the key factor and they will find a way to increase it in order to make their expectations come true
Once you realize this, you can narrow your course of action:
  1. You can discuss with the client in order to reach a compromise with a reduced scope
  2. You can build the value of your offering in the proposal (in his post, Chris goes on to explain that the key is to build value in your proposal)
Worst case scenario, the deal doesn't go through and you stay out of an unfulfilling contract for both sides. It's reverse win-win!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:08:36 -0700 When the wiki's down http://guillaumelerouge.com/when-the-wikis-down http://guillaumelerouge.com/when-the-wikis-down Our intranet is currently getting upgraded to the latest version of XWiki. This pretty much means that I cannot work. It's late Friday afternoon so most of our customers and prospects will not return emails and phone calls at this hour. As it turns out, I believe that this is a good thing.

We have come to a point where almost all of our internal communication and processes are done through XWiki:
  • Sales proposal are written and stored in wiki pages
  • Project-related information as well as processes and best practices are in a dedicated wiki
  • All of our HR information, including information related to potential hires, is in another wiki
  • Our marketing plans and strategy is stored in a wiki of its own
If that sounds like an awful lot of wikis, that's because we're using XWiki Enterprise Manager, which means that each department can easily manage its own wiki.

We're also seeing this phenomenon at our customers: when the wiki is down for maintenance, people can no longer do their work correctly. It's so tightly integrated in their daily work processes that spending time on the wiki has become a crucial part of their day. That's when you know that your solution matters.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:56:00 -0700 On "The future of enterprise 2.0 is apps" (by @johnt ) http://guillaumelerouge.com/on-the-future-of-enterprise-20-is-apps-by-joh http://guillaumelerouge.com/on-the-future-of-enterprise-20-is-apps-by-joh

I was reading an article outlining the vision for the future of enterprise collaboration platforms by John Tropea. He discusses existing options for collaboration software and outlines a vision for an unified platform. The question he ends up asking himself is the following:

"Could we actually move in reverse and make some of the tools a little less unstructured? Anyway, to come to the focus of the post, can we somehow use design another way to increase adoption?"

Here are the 3 key takeaways that struck me:

  • The vision of a unified platform addressing most (if not all) enterprise collaboration needs:
    "The whole idea is to not have data locked up in multiple tools; []. The other premise is that it’s cheaper buying one platform that can mildly do all things, rather than lots of focused products."
  • The need for content templates:
    "Wouldn’t it be good if wikis could offer layouts using tables, this way my page is on the way to be structured how I like in one click."
  • The need for additional structure, up to applications & an app store:
    "I’m thinking further than extending a wiki with pre-formatted pages, I’m thinking apps (ie new modules) for the platform are a unique thing offered by social computing and the Web 2.0 ethos of the user building stuff."

What resonates with me is that this is exactly the vision at the heart of XWiki software, especially our current development effort:

Clearly, we still have work to smooth things out, eliminate remaining rough edges and provide a full and comprehensive package, but we're definitely on the right track. It's nice to see our vision validated ex-post :-)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:59:21 -0700 Animals being dicks - Thanks @jvdrean ! http://guillaumelerouge.com/animals-being-dicks-thanks-jvdrean http://guillaumelerouge.com/animals-being-dicks-thanks-jvdrean

Just watched all of them...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:18:53 -0700 3 (very) cool videos http://guillaumelerouge.com/3-very-cool-videos http://guillaumelerouge.com/3-very-cool-videos
EAT

LEARN

MOVE

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:25:42 -0700 I'm looking for a sales guy http://guillaumelerouge.com/im-looking-for-a-sales-guy http://guillaumelerouge.com/im-looking-for-a-sales-guy The year started very well at XWiki with a number of new and exciting projects coming in. The company's growing, now we need to grow the team as well.

I already wrote in the past about what it's like to work at XWiki. You can go and read that to get a feeling of what being a XWikier entails.

As for the new member of our sales team, here's who I'm looking for:
  • You're driven and motivated: I won't need to be on your back all the time asking for results
  • You know when to shut up: the biggest part of successful selling is careful listening
  • You've worked with customers before: you know how to deal with someone who wants to buy something from you
  • You don't over-promise and under-deliver: it's probably the biggest mistake I've made as a sales person
  • You can handle rejection: it's not because they didn't buy from you that you're not a great guy ;-)
If you're interested, you can find the full text of our offer (in French) here: http://www.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Company/SalesOpenPosition 

You can also let me know directly at guillaume@xwiki.com

Side note: we're also looking for a project manager as well as a number of other positions.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:14:00 -0700 Paris Air Show - 2011 Edition http://guillaumelerouge.com/paris-air-show-2011-edition http://guillaumelerouge.com/paris-air-show-2011-edition

I was at Le Bourget today for the 2011 edition of the Paris Air Show, along with several XWikiers. We enjoyed a day in the bright sun, watching aicrafts on display as well as the performance of pilots in the sky.

We got to see an impressive demonstration of the Rafale as well as a part of the Patrouille de France's show. We also saw an A380 flying - so big, yet flying so seamlessly!

It was really awesome, I'm already looking forward to the 2013 edition.

Img_0579 Img_0578 Img_0577 Img_0576 Img_0574 Img_0573 Img_0572 Img_0570 Img_0568 Img_0566 Img_0565 Img_0564 Img_0563 Img_0562 Img_0561 Img_0558 Img_0557 Img_0560
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:08:00 -0700 Dolphins are cool http://guillaumelerouge.com/dolphins-are-cool http://guillaumelerouge.com/dolphins-are-cool

I was at Parc Astérix about 2 weeks ago, where I saw the dolphin show. I gotta say, dolphins are cool.

Img_0548 Img_0547 Img_0546 Img_0545 Img_0543 Img_0542 Img_0541 Img_0540 Img_0539 Img_0537 Img_0536 Img_0535 Img_0534 Img_0533 Img_0531
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:59:00 -0700 Why Safari Reader won't kill Instapaper http://guillaumelerouge.com/why-safari-reader-wont-kill-instapaper http://guillaumelerouge.com/why-safari-reader-wont-kill-instapaper After this week's announcement that Apple will introduce a Reader capability to mobile Safari and a new feature called "Reading list" to the Safari browser across all platforms, I thought it would be interesting to review the differences between Instapaper and that new option.

A number of key points quickly emerge when trying to compare both options:
  • Safari isn't cool: it's not a mainstream browser (its market share is 7.3% overall). Users of a read later feature usually spend a lot of time scouring the web for news and articles. Those people are currently not inclined to use Safari as their main browser (they're way morel likely to use Chrome or Firefox as their main browser).
  • No offline mode: currently, there doesn't seem to be a way to save webpages for offline reading using the Reading list feature. You have to be connected to the internet to read articles, which makes the feature almost useless while travelling by train or plane, which is one of the big places where being able to read saved articles matters
  • No dedicated application: right now, the service is a part of Safari rather than a application standing on its own. This means that it's not optimized for the purpose of reading articles later, which makes its workflow confusing. You have to go the reading list, wait for the article to load, then tap the "Reader view" option to get an article to display properly. Instapaper is much more streamlined in this regard.
  • No API / integration with external services: unless I missed it, Apple did not announce any way for third-party applications and services to push articles to the reading list. One of Instapaper's greatest strength is its integration with services such as Google reader and other native RSS reading apps that make it seamless to send an article for reading later, whereas only Safari can push articles to the Reading list.
  • Platform limitations: Apple will only provide the service on platforms that it supports with the Safari browser. One of the best features for Instapaper power users is the ability to send articles to e-readers such as the kindle. In addition to this, Marco Ament could decide to offer a native Android application in order to broaden the appeal of Instapaper.
Therefore I strongly believe that the conclusions Marco came up to in his 2 blog posts on the topic still stand:
Safari Reader and the Reading list feature will serve to increase awareness about Instapaper and will ultimately help generate more Instapaper sales, the same way Starbucks is good for small coffee shops.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge Tue, 24 May 2011 08:47:00 -0700 My bet about Mac Defender http://guillaumelerouge.com/my-bet-about-mac-defender http://guillaumelerouge.com/my-bet-about-mac-defender

Interesting confluence of 2 stories today:

Last time such a big software issue took place (during locationgate), Apple responded by quickly pushing a software update to its user base.

Therefeore, maybe the reason why Apple doesn't want Mac users to uninstall the Mac Defender malware is so that they can publish an update that will fix it for them, which requires that the file is still there?

UPDATE: indeed, here it is: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4650 :-)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/84379/portrait-guillaume-small.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1lYWA6BkT7j Guillaume Lerouge glerouge Guillaume Lerouge